International travels
by Goveg
Summary: The four Zoosters are off to exciting new places. Off to see new lands, meet new animals. Yes they are now out in the sea! After they had got the gasoline for the boat.
1. Chapter 1

Hello to you! Hello! Sorry I didn't put up much stories for the past months. My computer was down and then all my fanfics disappeared. This is my first Madagascar fanfic so please, no flames!

**International travels**

_Here is the famous explorer, James Stripe-o, out on the deck of his sailing ship. The storm is blowing, stinging Stripe-o's eyes. His crew is yelling with fear. Only Stripe-o is their only hope! _

"MARTY!"

Marty blinked from his post as a steers-zebra. Clear blue water surrounded the ship. He turned his head. Alex was standing behind him. "Why are you talking to yourself?" Marty sighed. "Just imagining." "Are we going around in circles?" Gloria called out from the captain's port. "I checked the map and we should be near land by now!" "We should be in land in about...two hours." Alex said. "Meanwhile, let's have some lunch!" There was a gagging noise from the side of the boat. Melman lifted his head, his face pale green. "I think I lost my lunch." His cheeks puffed up and he leaned over to the side and did the gagging noise again. Alex groaned. "Oh great. We're gonna get a phone call from some environmentalist, saying we should be aware on what we throw in the ocean!" "Land!" Melman said. The Zoosters shot out from their posts and raced to the ledge. A green hunk of land stood there. "Land!" Marty said. "Never had I been so happy to see land!" "Steer toward land!" Alex told Marty. "Lets see where we are!"


	2. Ireland

Here's the first destination the Zoosters arrived. Read and review. No flames!

**IRELAND**

The four animals crashed through the bushes.

"We're almost to the human city!" Alex said cheerfully. "I can feel it."

"I don't think we're anywhere near it." Marty said. "We're going around in circles."

"How do you know?" Alex asked.

Marty nodded to a tree with stripped bark. "You see that? I stripped the bark off the tree to mark where we began. For the past two hours, we passed that same tree, plus other markings I made."

"So we're lost!" Melman yelped. "Oh no, no, no, no, no! We can't be lost! How will we get back to the boat? What if we never get back to the boat? What if we have to live here forever? What will we do for food! What will happen in winter! HOW WILL WE SURVIVE IT!"

"Melman," Gloria said. "Calm down, just calm down."

"Yes, calm down Melman my good friend!" Marty said. "Mr. Marty Zebra, navigator is in the house!"

"Oh really?" Alex said sarcastically. "How do you navigate, huh?"

"Easy," Marty said. He put his hoof on a tree with moss. "The moss always grows on the north side of the tree. So it's pointing north. Another way to determine north is by the sun." He nodded toward some green hills. "See the sun? It is going down. The sun always sets in west and rises in the east. So we have to find out which way is north and—"

"Shush!" Alex said suddenly.

"Hey!" Marty said. "You're shushing me!"

"Do you hear that?" Alex said. The animals remained silent. Music hung in the air.

"It's coming from over there!" Gloria said, pointing to some bushes. The animals raced toward the music.

"This is the jungle thing all over again!" Alex groaned. "We hear music, we race to the music, then we get surrounded by a bunch of bozo squirrel things!"

Melman then stopped. "Oh yeah, it is a squirrel thing again."

The animals looked. There was a town full of squirrels, dancing little jigs to bagpipes. One squirrel then froze when he saw them.

"The great king has arrived! The great king, don't ya' know?"

The squirrels raced over to Melman and crowded around him.

"Huh!" Melman yelped.

"Oh great King Ferdinand! Welcome back to Ireland!" The squirrels said, bowing.

"Ferdinand?" Gloria asked, confused.

"Ireland?" Marty said.

An elderly squirrel came in front. "Great King Ferdinand! You had come at last! For years, we had waited for you!"

"Waited for me?" Melman said. "But my name is—"

"Aye. Waited for you!" The squirrel said. "Me name's Fitzgerald. The elder of the squirrel colony."

"Wait, wait, wait." Alex said. "Are you saying Melman is your king?"

"Aye, laddie!" Fitzgerald said. "Millions of years ago, King Tod ruled the land. He was a great beast with a long neck and long legs. He ruled over the squirrel kingdom, and everyone was happy."

"Oy!" The squirrels shouted.

Marty and Alex looked at each other. Marty shrugged.

"But sadly," Fitzgerald said, "King Tod had to go off to fight a great battle, and was killed. His brother, King Ferdinand had to go off to battle too, but he promised to return one day and rule in place of his departed brother, and now, he's back! Hail, hail, King Ferdinand!"

"Hail King Ferdinand!" The squirrels said and ended with a loud, "Oy!"

Melman's head was spinning. King? He was a king?

"Uh," Melman said. "I think you guys might be mistaken. I am not a king and I don't have a brother. I need to take medications, I live in New York and—"

"King Ferdinand," A squirrel said. "Come to the royal den and rest before beginning your royal lessons."

"MY WHAT!" Melman yelped as he was being led away by squirrels.

"You lads and lass must be companions to King Ferdinand!" Fitzgerald said.

"Yeah," Gloria said. "But he is not a—"

"Go with Thomas to your sleeping quarters." Fitzgerald said. "You will make fine advisors to King Ferdinand!"

A squirrel led them to a cave with soft leaf beds. Two squirrels brought leaves with nuts and acorns.

"You two can find some fresh water near a stream two miles from our village." Thomas said. "Sleep well!" He left with the other squirrels.

"Gee!" Alex said. "They think Melman is a king? They're even worse than the penguins!"

"I never knew that Ireland squirrels had a king." Marty said.

"Oh they did, they did." A voice said. A bird flew into the cave. The animals stared at it. It was stout with hooded eyes.

"What are you?" Alex said. "Some sort of fat chicken?"

The bird chuckled softly. "No, no. I suppose you had never seen an owl."

"We've seen them at the zoo where we lived in." Gloria said. "But we never actually talked to them or get to know them."

"My name is Jenny." The owl said. "I came from the great Emerald hills."

"Why are those squirrels acting like Melman is a king?" Marty asked.

Jenny spread her wings. "It is better if you follow me, lad."

Alex, Marty and Gloria followed Jenny through the forest and into a field. The three animals stopped at the field and stared at white animals that glowed in the moonlight.

"What are those?" Alex said.

"They are sheep." Jenny said. "The humans raise them for their wool or meat. A main dish is called mutton."

Gloria bravely walked over to a sheep and patted the wool. "Ooh, it is so soft. I could just fall asleep right on top of them!"

"You will break them, lass." Jenny said. "Sheep are delicate creatures. Now come on."

The animals followed Jenny until they came to green hills. Jenny pointed a wing to the hills. "Welcome to my home."

"Wow!" Gloria said.

"Not bad." Alex said.

"It's crack-a-lacking!" Marty said.

Jenny turned to them. "Now, about your friend and the king thing, a long time ago, Ireland did had long creatures. They were called dinosaurs."

"Dino—what?" Marty said.

"Dinosaurs." Jenny said. "One of them was called a Brontosaurs. It was large with a long neck. Thousand years ago, there was a king Brontosaurs named King Tod and his brother, King Ferdinand. They ruled over the other dinosaurs and everyone was happy. But soon the king had to go fight in a war and he left his kingdom to fight. But he was killed but as the squirrels said, his brother promised when the war was over, he will rule over the kingdom, but sadly, he was also killed. I'm afraid the squirrels think your friend is the king."

"Is there anyway to find a true king?" Marty asked.

"Aye." Jenny said. "Legend says that after King Ferdinand left, another dinosaur ruled over the others. In time, those dinosaurs turned into birds and years later, a bird king was killed in battle so the crown was passed to rodents, then to weasels."

"But aren't weasels meat-eaters?" Alex asked.

Jenny nodded. "Aye, it was a rebellious time for the herbivores. After the rebellion, the weasel king fled the kingdom and the kingdom was in ruins. Many animals forgot about the king, except for the squirrels and owls. There is a jewel in a rat's cave that only a true king can obtain. The true king had been said to be exiled from the colony and with a strange diet."

"Where is the cave?" Marty asked, getting excited.

Jenny turned her head. "Near the ancient ruins of a castle. But first, get some sleep and you can go off to your journey in the morning."

The next morning, Melman stared at his breakfast of nuts and berries. He groaned and touched his crown on his head, which was made from leaves and twigs. "So, why are we doing this?"

"Don't you remember King Ferdinand?" Fitzgerald said. "You came from a different kingdom, so you don't know our etiquette from our kingdom."

Melman looked down at his breakfast. The crown fell off his head and landed on the food.

"Oops!" Melman mumbled, picking it up and placing it back on his head. He put his hooves on the stone and was about to start eating when a squirrel cleared his throat.

"Ahem!"

Melman took his hooves off the stone table and bent his neck to eat the nuts.

"Ahem!" A squirrel said.

Melman straightened up. He picked up a nut with his teeth and held it between his front teeth.

"Ahem!"

Melman flicked the nut in his mouth with his tongue and chewed with his mouth closed.

Fitzgerald clapped. "Very good your majesty!"

Melman rolled his eyes and chewed.

The next morning, after saying their good-byes, Alex, Marty and Gloria went off to find the rat cave.

"We better be aware of these rats." Gloria said. "Rats are nasty little critters with no manners."

"I'm sure everything will be fine." Marty said. "We're ten times bigger than them!"

"And their teeth are like pin pricks than a real carnivore's teeth!" Alex said. "We can handle them like we handled the Fossa...whatever they were."

The three Zoosters went through valleys, over hills and through other forests until they got to a cliff. Before the cliff was the ocean.

"So now what do we do?" Marty asked.

Gloria turned her head. "Hey look! There are the ruins of the castle!"

A decayed castle lay a mile away from them.

"The rat cave must be nearby!" Alex said.

"Lets go!" Marty said. "Lets do it!"

The animals raced over to the decayed castle.

At the squirrel village, Melman watched as the squirrels danced their step-dance.

"Now, it is your turn, King Ferdinand!" Fitzgerald said.

Melman stood frozen. The music began to play. Melman tried the best he can to follow the steps to the dances, but his long legs kept on getting on the way! Melman squeaked as his legs got tangled up with each other. He came crashing to the ground.

"Getting better your majesty!" Fitzgerald said. Melman groaned.

The castle was huge, compared to the three animals. They stared up at awe.

"Well, here's the castle." Alex said. "Where is the rat cave?"

"Oh I say about right next to you lad," A voice said.

The animals jumped. A sleek, long animal thing came out from behind the rock.

"Are you a weasel?" Gloria asked.

The weasel nodded. "Aye, I am a weasel. My name is Christopher."

"Aren't you supposed to be with a colony of weasels?" Alex asked. "You're alone."

Christopher shrugged. "I had been banished from my tribe. They think I'm weird."

"Why is that?" Gloria asked.

Christopher smiled. "I'm a vegetarian."

He laughed but it came out like a demented squawk.

"A vegetarian?" Alex said. "Whoa. You mean the 'eat vegetables and not eat any steak' type of vegetarian?"

"I gave up red meat months ago." Christopher sighed. "My diet includes herbs, grasses and an occasional fish from the stream."

He looked at them. "I suppose you are here to get the jewel?"

"Well," Gloria said. "We're trying to find the real king of Ireland."

"The squirrels in the forest think Melman is their king!" Marty said. "The only way to prove a real king is to find—" He froze. "A king that had been exiled from it's colony and have a strange diet! Christopher, you are the new king!"

Christopher smiled. "Well lad, that is a kind thing to say, but I cannot be king to a colony of squirrels."

"Well who cares!" Alex said. "As long as it isn't Melman!" He pointed to a hole. "You gotta go in there and get the jewel away from the rats!"

Christopher stared down. "Well, I guess I can go down and save your friend."

"Yes, please!" Alex said. "Go on!"

Christopher took a deep breath and went in.

"Come on, Chris!" Gloria said. "We're rooting for you!"

"Chris! Chris! Chris! Chris!" Marty chanted.

Christopher went in deeper and deeper into the cave. Red eyes followed him every step. After traveling deeper and deeper into the cave, he then came upon a green jewel. Christopher took a deep breath and grabbed the jewel with his jaws. Rats then came out of nowhere, snapping and shrieking. Christopher raced off with the jewel clamped in his jaws. The rats followed him.

"The jewel! The jewel!" They shrieked. "Get the jewel!"

Christopher raced up and burst out. The rats followed. Alex leaped on the rats, throwing them as far as he could. Marty kicked up dirt, blinding the rats. Gloria stomped as hard as she could, sending rats flying. The rats howled in defeat and raced back into the hole.

"You did it Chris!" Gloria cheered. "You did it!"

"Woo-hoo!" Marty cheered. "Those rats didn't had a chance!"

Alex bowed to Chris. "Chris, you are now king of the squirrels."

Marty and Gloria bowed. Chris felt a glow growing inside of him.

Melman flipped a page in a book he was reading. These squirrels were making him read etiquette books. It was the same rules in every book! Do stand when a lady enters the room, hold the door open for people coming in, don't raise your voice, don't jump on the table and make funny animal noises, don't pick your nose, blah, blah, blah!

A squirrel then shouted, "King Ferdinand's companions are coming! And they have a weasel with them! The weasel has the jewel! He is the true king! We've been mistaken!"

Melman slammed the book shut.

"Hooray!" He said happily to himself.

Back at the ship, the four Zoosters waved good-bye to the squirrels and the new king.

"Good-bye fake king!" The squirrels said. "Good-bye! Oy!"

"Good-bye fake subjects!" Melman said.

"So Melman," Alex said. "How was it being a king?"

"Ugh, don't remind me!" Melman groaned. He went toward the ship's cabin. "I need to get my medications!"

The ship sailed off into the horizon, heading for the next adventure in a different country.


End file.
